This invention relates to the field of games, and specifically to lottery type games.
Lottery games are well known as are similar games such as bingo and keno. These games are often played for entertainment purposes. These games are often run by government agencies in order to raise revenue. They are most often games of chance where the player purchases a ticket valid for one or more plays of the game often with an opportunity to win a pool of money or some other valuable prize.
Lottery games are typically divided into two common types of games: one being played with an instant game ticket and the other being a "lottery jackpot ticket." A lottery jackpot ticket is often refered to as a "Lotto Ticket". The instant ticket lottery game is often described as a "scratch ticket." A scratch ticket often involves the use of a printed ticket containing indicators covered with a removable coating. The player purchases a ticket and removes the removable coating to reveal the hidden indicators. Tickets containing specified indicators are winning tickets, while tickets with any other indicators are losing tickets. A winning ticket entitles the ticket holder to claim a certain prize, usually a fixed monetary award which is often specified on the ticket. Examples of instant win lottery games are shown in Great Britain Patent No. 1,555,462 issued to Rocklin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,149 issued to Donovan, and Great Britain Patent Application No. 2085308 issued to Edwards.
The jackpot type lottery game is usually played with the player purchasing a ticket containing at least one number series. The numbers are either assigned randomly or selected by the player. All numbers played must be selected from a specified field or set of numbers, for example from the numbers 1 to 42. On a certain date lottery officials a selection of numbers from the field and any ticket bearing the selected numbers is a winner of a valuable prize, usually money referred to as the jackpot. In many variations of the game the jackpot pool is a percentage of the total jackpot ticket sales revenue. U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,190 issued to Clark shows a voucher that can be used for such a lottery drawing and the Edwards patent referred to above also shows such a lottery game.
One of the problems with many of the lottery games already known is that they allow the player only one play for each ticket purchased. Attempts have been made to combine two games onto one lottery ticket as shown by the Edwards patent application, but these have not been widely adopted. A further problem with lottery games is that a jackpot type of ticket draws a players attention for only one jackpot drawing and there is no lottery game that which combines attributes of both a scratch ticket and a jackpot type of ticket.